Questions about the attitude of Italians to their Roma minority were again being asked yesterday after photographs were published of sunbathers continuing as normal with a day at the beach despite the bodies of two Gypsy girls who had drowned being laid out on the sand nearby.

A civil liberties group said it had asked for talks with the authorities to shed light on the circumstances of the girls' death. The incident took place outside Naples, where a Roma encampment was burned to the ground this year after its inhabitants had been evacuated for their own safety.

Accounts given by Italian media varied, but according to the news agency Ansa, the victims - aged 14 and 16 - and two other young Gypsies had been begging from daytrippers on the beach at Torregaveta, west of Naples, on Saturday. Other reports indicated they were selling trinkets. The area is easily reached from the city by a railway line that ends near the shore.

At about 1pm, the four girls decided to go into the water even though none of them, it seems, knew how to swim. They soon got into difficulties because of strong currents in the area and were hit by an unusually big wave.

Two of the girls were rescued by life-savers from a nearby private beach. But rescuers were unable to reach the two oldest until they were already dead.

Their corpses were dragged ashore and laid out on the sand under beach towels.

"But the knot of curious onlookers that formed around the girls' bodies dissolved as [swiftly] as it had formed," the newspaper Corriere della Sera reported. "Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing. When the police from the mortuary arrived an hour later with coffins, the two girls were carried away on the shoulders [of the officers] between bathers stretched out in the sun."

La Repubblica also expressed astonishment at the behaviour of those present. "While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few metres away," it reported.

Corriere recalled that this was not the first time people had decided a death was no reason to give up their day at the beach. In August 1997, sunbathers carried on as normal after a man drowned near Trieste.

But the fact that the two victims on this occasion were Roma added an extra twist to the affair.

Italy is gripped by anti-Gypsy feeling. Since coming to office in May, Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government has appointed three special commissioners to deal with the Roma in each of Italy's three biggest cities - Naples, Milan and Rome. It has also ordered the fingerprinting of the country's Gypsy population, including minors, who make up more than half of the estimated 150,000 Roma in Italy.

The European commission has asked the Italian government for more details on the census, and this month the European parliament approved a motion condemning it as an act of discrimination banned by the European convention of human rights. Berlusconi last week told the commission president, José Manuel Barroso, that the information was being collected to ensure Gypsy children went to school.

The civil liberties group EveryOne said it was unconvinced by reports of the incident at Torregaveta and asked whether there might be something more sinister behind it.

A statement from the group said: "Two young Roma would never have left their scant merchandise for 'a refreshing dip' in the waves. Two Gypsy girls would never have gone bathing in full view of everyone because of the modesty that is one of their distinguishing characteristics."

The group said it had asked for a meeting with the authorities, adding: "We await their response."